<p>I know that it is difficult for International students to get into good American Colleges with a good scholarship programme, what with very few seats and lots of applicants besides an already selective admission process. But colleges are very optimistic and boast of a large numbers of international students in their campus who receive awesome scholarships. I am in a dilemma and have no clue which college will accept me or even be interested in my application because not only I am an international student ( from India) but also my parent's income is only around 40,000 USD. Although my parents will take a loan it will be still burdensome because my elder brother ( 1 yr older) went to Drexel University, Philadelphia just last year on a 25,000 USD scholarship and I dont want them to bother with another big loan. So please, if anyone can tell me, what my chances are into colleges and how much scholarship I should ask for, I would be deeply grateful. A brief bio is given below</p>
<p>Extra curric:
.International Sci. Olympiad: 1st in State, 16th Olympiad Rank (2011)
.2 Years Volunteer Service at far away village, teaching children
.Teaching local children of locality during summer break
. Played main roles in annual school plays.
. Model United Nations participant
. Regularly participate in debates, declamations, recitations and have won many inter school and intra school prizes.
. Play soccer and tennis at regional and school level for 4-5 years
.Frequent camping trips ( school and family)</p>
<p>These are the universities I am applying to in ENGINEERING FIELD:
MIT
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Brown
Columbia
Cornell
UPenn
Illinois Institue
UCHicago
Rice University
Drexel University</p>
<p>Hi I’m an international student too;)
My family needs reasonable amount of grant as well in order to send me to american colleges… so I’ve been researching a lot. There are only six colleges that are need-blind to international students: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Dartmouth and Amherst. Since your stat seems good, I think you’ll have chance at those colleges although not guaranteed. Or you can aim for liberal arts colleges- many of them are pretty generous in giving aid packages although they’re need-aware. If you have much higher sat score than the average score of applicants, your chance of getting financial aid is greater. My stats are similar to yours, and I’m thinking of applying for financial aid at LACs:)</p>
<p>:) thanku febsvt… but a nagging big problem is that I am applying for engineering and I have no idea how much aid to ask for to the need-aware colleges, Although ideally i would like 70-100% aid, but by means of loan and savings my parents can manage in 50-60% also. I am afraid to ask for too little that when I get admiss. i will burden my family and I also fear asking for a lot since my chances will drastically reduce, since colleges cannot bear major expenses for all international students. Its a Devil and a Deep Blue Sea situation for me. Any advice anyone?</p>
<p>If you are placed that highly in the science Olympiad world rank list, you have great chances. That really distinguishes you from all the other Indian applicants. </p>
<p>I would be as honest as possible; Most Colleges will calculate your Family contribution. Just include all aspects of your financial situation when filing the CSS profile. </p>
<p>Don’t just go down rankings, but rather look for schools that really appeal to you in a number of ways. Some of the schools you mentioned might not be a good fit (I hated Harvard for example, didn’t care about Yale or Princeton, love Dartmouth :)) </p>
<p>So go ahead and apply to those 6 or so reaches that you like best. Also have a plan c in mind, like a university in India or a school that will definitely affordable for you in the US.</p>
<p>i dunno about scholarships / finaid (not needed for me)
MIT, HYP (reach) it is for everyone particularly engineering
UPenn (low reach / high match)
Brown, Columbia, Cornell, UChicago (match)
Rice (low match) its usually a reach for most ppl but well done!
Drexel (safety)
Illinois (no idea sorry) is it university of illinois??</p>